What are the chances Ales Hemsky and Nikolai Khabibulin are moved by the Edmonton Oilers by the NHL trade deadline? I don't know for sure, but their names came up in a conversation today between two people I trust, so I'm paying attention.

Of course, Hemsky's name has been the subject of untold speculation for months, some might say years, so hearing his name come up today as being moved along is hardly stop-the-presses material. Likewise, fans around here and elsewhere have mentioned Khabibulin, even if much of the talk falls into the category of wishful thinking.

But when long-time Ottawa Sun beat man Bruce Garrioch, one of a handful of people in the hockey writing business I consider to be in the know, mentions Hemsky and Khabibulin, as he did today in a segment on Oilers Now with Bob Stauffer on 630 CHED, I put considerably more weight in it than I do in garden variety what-if talk offered up by fans and outsiders pretending to have inside info.

Yes, Garrioch throws a lot of stuff against the wall to see what sticks – that's part of his mandate and comes with filling with his widely read weekend column – but I made and took enough calls from him over the years while working the beat to know he's got a pretty good grasp of what's going on.

Just one example of that came at the NHL Entry Draft in Nashville when Garrioch strongly suggested I look into the possibility all was not right between the Oilers and Mike Comrie – that was months before the crap hit the fan between No. 89 and then GM Kevin Lowe, but I digress . . .

MOST LIKELY TO MOVE

Today, Stauffer, who is more in the know than anybody in this town by a long shot when it comes to the Oilers, asked Garrioch who he'd list as most likely to move between now and the deadline Feb. 27.

Garrioch mentioned seven players, including Hemsky and Khabibulin on his list with Tuomo Ruutu, Tim Gleason, Jaroslav Spacek, Bryan Allen – Jason Gregor and I talked this quartet from the Carolina Hurricanes on his show at TEAM 1260 Wednesday – and Bobby Ryan of Anaheim. I'd also add Andy Sutton to that list, but neither Garrioch nor Stauffer brought his name up.

With Hemsky approaching unrestricted free agency, it's a no-brainer he's grist for the rumor mill. I have no doubt Tambellini will shop him. The only question is how aggressively, and who returns his calls.

What got my attention, given his age and what would seem a very limited list of teams in the market, was Garrioch's insistence Khabibulin will be in play, which leads me to believe he's heard something.

With 33 days until the deadline, the buzz, guesswork and speculation will increase once the all-star game is done. For fans, that means throwing out scenarios and wish-lists of acquisitions (often one-sided deals that will help their team). For reporters, it means working the phones and checking with agents to get an inside track on what's likely to happen. The scribes on top of things, like Garrioch, have already made a lot of those calls.

Stay tuned.

Listen to Robin Brownlee Wednesdays and Thursdays from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. on the Jason Gregor Show on TEAM 1260.

A sports writer since 1983, including stints at The Edmonton Journal and The Sun 1989-2007, I happily co-host the Jason Gregor Show on TSN 1260 twice a week and write when so inclined. Have the best damn lawn on the internet. Most important, I am Sam's dad. Follow me on Twitter at Robin_Brownlee. Or don't.

I just recently watched Moneyball. In a few separate scenes, for those who haven't seen it, Brad Pitt's character yells out on a whim for his secretary to get some other MLB GM on the phone. The GM picks up. Pitt proposes a trade. The GM says yes, no, or other. Pitt hangs up and lets the GM mull it over meanwhile calling another colleague GM. This continues until the trade is done or dead.

Every year we read the blogs or listen to the talking heads on TV or the radio. Every year it's the same. The media knows nothing. I reckon some of the GM's know nothing and make a lot of trades on a whim.

Maybe we should save the energy and time and effort and just let it all happen.

This season is another wash so moving a goalie (like Khabi), a defenceman (Sutton), and a forward or two (Hemsky, Gagner, Hordichuk, Green, etc.) should be expected. Hopefully, the Oil can land one or two foundation stones on defence and in goal in return. I would think any UFA would be in play at the deadline as a rental and any "second tier" or fringe youth players.

"The media knows nothing. I reckon some of the GM's know nothing and make a lot of trades on a whim."

No question there's lots of baseless speculation and guesswork to weed through, but you're way over the top with that statement.

Until a trade is actually made, all reporters can do is track who is talking and try to find out what players are being discussed. There are lots of talks that result in nothing, but to suggest the etablished guys out there who have national audiences know nothing and, it follows, are making things up, is a bit much.

I just recently watched Moneyball. In a few separate scenes, for those who haven't seen it, Brad Pitt's character yells out on a whim for his secretary to get some other MLB GM on the phone. The GM picks up. Pitt proposes a trade. The GM says yes, no, or other. Pitt hangs up and lets the GM mull it over meanwhile calling another colleague GM. This continues until the trade is done or dead.

Every year we read the blogs or listen to the talking heads on TV or the radio. Every year it's the same. The media knows nothing. I reckon some of the GM's know nothing and make a lot of trades on a whim.

Maybe we should save the energy and time and effort and just let it all happen.

I just recently watched Moneyball. In a few separate scenes, for those who haven't seen it, Brad Pitt's character yells out on a whim for his secretary to get some other MLB GM on the phone. The GM picks up. Pitt proposes a trade. The GM says yes, no, or other. Pitt hangs up and lets the GM mull it over meanwhile calling another colleague GM. This continues until the trade is done or dead.

Every year we read the blogs or listen to the talking heads on TV or the radio. Every year it's the same. The media knows nothing. I reckon some of the GM's know nothing and make a lot of trades on a whim.

Maybe we should save the energy and time and effort and just let it all happen.

Just my 2 cents.

Just let it all happen?????

Where is the fun in that? If you don't like to hear the rumour mill churning and that is certainly your choice; change the station. I like it because it adds a bit of mystery and intrigue to following your team or hockey in general.

I feel the media and GM's know a little more than you give them credit for though. Guys like Mackenzie, Dreger, Garrioch and Stauffer are in the know and more often than not, they peg something pretty close to the mark. They might not get the destination 100% of the time, but usually if a players name comes up as available, they know about it.

"The media knows nothing. I reckon some of the GM's know nothing and make a lot of trades on a whim."

No question there's lots of baseless speculation and guesswork to weed through, but you're way over the top with that statement.

Until a trade is actually made, all reporters can do is track who is talking and try to find out what players are being discussed. There are lots of talks that result in nothing, but to suggest the etablished guys out there who have national audiences know nothing and, it follows, are making things up, is a bit much.

It makes sense to me that GMs would need to float who is available to potential suitors and that info could realistically flow down from GM to support staff (or other) to media. So its logical to put some weight into media suggestions on who is on the trade block. It wouldn't make sense for teams to keep their cards tight on who they'd like to move.

But on the flip side I can't think of a logical reason why anyone on either side of the equation would divulge the return. Unless the team shipping a player out wanted to up the bidding war by proving what someone else offered? Otherwise it seems like any trade rumor that includes what might come back the other way would be almost entire speculative no matter who its coming from, media or otherwise.

In fairness, he also spent the majority of the past 20 starts without an actual NHL defense in front of him. He's had a few brutal games, but he's kept the team in several games they should have been blown out of.

That said, I'm equally skeptical about him being moved, though he could prove to be a solid backup on a contending team. That extra year is the main problem to moving him.

GMs and hockey ops staff absolutely talk to some reporters from time to time.

You might recall I did a series of items here a few years ago leading into the deadline outlining that the Oilers were talking to the Hurricanes about sending Erik Cole back to Carolina -- as unlikely as that seemed to a lot of people because they'd just acquired him from there.

That turned into the roundabout deal involving Patrick O'Sullivan and LA with Cole going back to Carolina. I didn't get a whiff of that from ticket takers or janitors at Rexall.

By the way, the player the Oilers really wanted for sending Cole back to Carolina was Tuomo Ruutu.

Would love to see Khabi go for a 2nd or 3rd round pick. I don't see it happening though. I don't think he is as bad as goalie as he has been for the last 20 games or so, but he isn't as good as he was at the beginning of the year. He's probably a 2.7 or 2.8 GAA with a 910% save percentage. Either way not worth the $3.7 we will have to pay him next year. Trade him and grab something on the FA market in the summer.

In regards to Hemsky is there a sense out there if a potential move is the result of Hemsky becoming disenchanted with the Oilers and unlikely to re-sign or if it is the result of the Oiler's brass deciding that Hemsky's time in Edmonton is up by their terms?

I think Willis is 100% on the money when it comes to Khabibulin. He does indeed have negative value. Nittymaki cleared waivers. You'd think that anyone in the market for what Bulin brings would have been happy to get the same thing for free from the Sharks. I would be delighted if someone would take Bulin for free, but I'd be shocked if it happened.

Re Hemsky - it makes me sad. I just don't see how we get anything close to decent value for him at this point - i.e. a rental having a bad season. I don't see how it makes any sense to give him a long contract for decent money given the injury history and recent performance. And I don't see why he would take short term and low money from the Oil when he could test the FA waters this summer. The options seems to be (1) trade him for peanuts at or before the deadline; (2) lose him for nothing in the summer; (3) improvidently sign him to longish term and decent money, with the ever-looming risk of injury. It's lose-lose-lose no matter what happens with him.

Given that Tampa Bay just passed on Antero Niittymaki, why would they take Khabibulin for anything?

Khabibulin makes almost $4.0 million next season, and has been a 0.902 SV% goalie for the Oilers. Since his first nine games, he's been a 0.899 SV% goalie.

He has negative value.

Because he is known-commodity with a history and is outperforming their current tandem.

Again it boils down to price, history and performance. If a GM is going to make a splash I would posit they would want to minimize risk and there is a lot of "seen him good" when trying to make a decision over just the stat sheet spread.

If we ask the right price, take enough in return I would argue Khabibulin is not un-tradable, especially with the flashes of brilliance he has shown.

I'm not saying it will happen, just that its not as far fetched as someone buried in piles of stats sheets may want us to believe.

The one thing about Khabibulin is that for most of the year he has had AHL defensemen in front of him. Some teams may think he could be a second string goalie. Obviously the way he played a the beginning of the season he looked like the best goalie in the league. Teams may think with their defence he could be good.

Robin, any thoughts on where Khabibulin would be a consideration? Off the top of my head, FLA seems like the only one due to Dale Tallon's presence. Problem is they've been getting solid goaltending and they would likely want to keep a spot on the roster for Jacob Markstrom next year.

There are a lot of posts re trading Bulin to tampa for Roli. I just don't see it.

Tampa is 9 points out of the playoffs. It's not looking very good for them. Roli is on the last year of his contract. Bulin has one more at almost 4 mil. I don't have a good sense of where tampa is cap-wise, but I just don't see how it would make sense for them to take on an additional year of Bulin when this year is so perilously close to being written off. It just doesn't make sense.

Not to suggest that Eliotte Friedman is is an omniscient hockey-man (he's not), but I enjoy his weekly "30 thoughts" on CBC's site and there's often some interesting stuff in there. This week a few of his "thoughts" were about Yzerman, and one noted that Yzerman was '"pulling back" in his hunt for goaltenders and defencemen." The piece presumed that teams were wanting picks/prospects for a goaltender (not broken down veteran for broken down veteran), but it speaks to the ethos in Tampa right now.

Over the last 2 years the entire d-zone coverage has been brutal, not just the defencemen in front of the tenders! With a quality team in front of him, Khabibulan would be a good pick up in my opinion! It's a tough thing to pin mediocre numbers on Khabby when he hasn't had the best team possible play in front of him! I hope he does have an opportunity to play in the play-offs & show his stuff!

Given that Tampa Bay just passed on Antero Niittymaki, why would they take Khabibulin for anything?

Khabibulin makes almost $4.0 million next season, and has been a 0.902 SV% goalie for the Oilers. Since his first nine games, he's been a 0.899 SV% goalie.

He has negative value.

JW,

I know that Khabby has another year at a cap hit of $3.75 million ,but looking at the numbers for the goalies that Tampa currently has, Khabby has been better. I am not sure where you got the .902 SV%, but on NHL.com, his numbers are 30GP, 2.45 GAA and .918 SV%.

If the Oil had to take Roli back along with someone else to offset the $$$, don't you think a deal could be had here? It wouldn't be a blockbuster, but if the Oil could get a 3rd rounder in the deal, I think that would be good.

STUPID, HOW ABOUT WE PACKAGE HEMMER UP IN A TRADE TO LA IN RETURN WE WILL TAKE PENNER BACK TO GIVE LA THE CAP RELIEF THEY NEED ALSO THEY ADD IN THERE BEST D PROSPECT OR THERE 1ST !! PREFERBLY THERE BEST D PROSPECT. BOOK IT !!

STUPID, HOW ABOUT WE PACKAGE HEMMER UP IN A TRADE TO LA IN RETURN WE WILL TAKE PENNER BACK TO GIVE LA THE CAP RELIEF THEY NEED ALSO THEY ADD IN THERE BEST D PROSPECT OR THERE 1ST !! PREFERBLY THERE BEST D PROSPECT. BOOK IT !!

I would hope we are initiating the talks and not waiting for others to call . Everyone is available if price , etc. are worth it . Expand our choices with all clubs just not a few . Gretzky and Messier proves all are expendible with the right deal . I doubt the club wants to go back in talent any further than what it has already . We need deals now that will upgrade team . I don't think we should be going after another plethora of draftees with our trades - we have enough already to try and build around . This year we may have more blue chippers if we continue to be a bottom feeder anyways.

Fair enough and I retract the generalized use of the word "nothing". Maybe shove "Most of" at the beginning of the line.

The problem for me is the mentality with much of the media that 'a man's gotta eat'. In the day of 24 hours news coverage and 4 sports channel within remote control distance, never mind the endless void that is the internet, it just gets...old and predictable (not you, I quite enjoy your articles, just the whole rumor mill industry, as it were). I guess that's all I'm trying to say.

Moneyball showed a side to GM'ing that I hadn't seen before and it was refreshing.